Sunday 8 June 2008

Crime Reduction Website Proves Its Worth

Here's how Government IT systems work. A lovely story, and all too typical. Can anyone name a single Government-commissioned IT project that came in on time and on budget, did the job it was designed to do, and proved secure in operation? The one good thing about the promised/threatened computerisation of NHS records - here's the latest setback - is that it will almost certainly never happen. As well as IT firms pulling out, growing numbers of individuals, GPs' surgeries and clinics are refusing to co-operate in this madness. Yet the Government's already thrown billions of pounds of our money into the crazy project, and will throw much more after it. (Here's how to opt out, if you're interested.)

3 comments:

  1. What is it about these public service IT systems, rocket science they ain't, the number of individual input commands are relatively small, the security is complex but achievable, the civil servants probably do not know what they want so suck it and see will be the default action, that will be the cost overrun area. To put the whole thing into perspective, Alias, now Autodesk Maya can Have more than 5000 separate commands, is an elegant, bug free system used world wide to give you animated movies and design and engineer your car, of course Politicians and civil servants were never within 500 miles of its development.
    I like that opt out site, methinks I shall try that.

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  2. Slight snag there Nige, to opt out you have to write to your GP, are they joking, our GP, open letters, my goodness, whatever next, actually working the same hours as everybody else.
    Bah humbug.

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  3. I'm tempted to say the Doomsday Book. It's seems to have downhill since then.

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